SCOTT LUDWIG: Picking through the auditory shrapnel

On March 3, in Donald Trump’s first address to the nation since taking office, three things were abundantly clear:

(1) Trump’s message wasn’t intended for me; rather, it was directed at the 50% of the country who voted for him. I would have voted for a tree before I would a man who was impeached twice, filed for bankruptcy six times, and was convicted of 34 assorted felonies.

(2) It’s hard to conceive that anyone could cause as much harm to this country as he’s managed to do in just six short weeks.

(3) Fact checkers were going to be in for a very long night.

About that first one: Although his message wasn’t intended for me, it still hit me with the impact of a hand grenade. It may not have been a direct strike, but I sure got hit with a lot of shrapnel nonetheless.

To do Trump’s close to two hours of lies the proper justice would require writing a book. Instead, I’ll just point out some of the night’s lowlights:

· Trump mentioned that “the days of unelected bureaucrats are over” as the camera panned to Elon Musk. The hypocrisy is off the charts for that one.

· Trump boasted of the number of executive orders he’s already signed, including the one renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America and another designating English as the official language of our country. (Using Trump’s logic, shouldn’t our official language be American?) Another executive order restricts transgender men from competing in women’s sports, which has been one of his favorite go-to topics. (There was no word on transgender women competing in men’s sports, however.)

· The many “Oprah Winfrey moments,” whereby Trump gave unsolicited “gifts” to various people in attendance. To name a few: an acceptance into West Point, naming a National Wildlife Refuge after someone’s daughter, and an honorary membership in the Secret Service. (I wonder if that last one is anything like the job given to Kash Patel?)

· For the umpteenth time, Trump talked about Abbey Gate and the 13 U.S. service members killed in the attack. A tragedy for sure, but what about the hundreds of thousands of lives that were needlessly lost to a pandemic that Trump tried to brush under the rug and allowed to rage out of control before doing anything about it the first time he was in office?

· Al Green, a Democrat from Texas, was removed from the proceedings, supposedly for his disruptive behavior. It was a lot like that time when Marjorie Taylor Greene was in that very same room calling Joe Biden a liar, only in her case she was allowed to stay. (As for MTG’s attire, she was wearing a Democratic blue dress and a red MAGA baseball cap. You know, to keep things classy.)

· Trump announced that foreign-born potential immigrants would soon be able to purchase $5 million “gold cards” that would pave the way to their becoming U.S. citizens. (A friend of mine, no fan of Trump’s, asked if he could sell his citizenship for $5 million to get the hell out of our country. Best I can tell, he’s leaving. Regardless.)

There were also a few things Trump said that made absolutely no sense:

· He spoke of his support for the military, yet failed to mention his cuts to the VA nor the veterans who lost their jobs because of him.

· He spoke of his love for the police, yet failed to address the pardons he granted to everyone who took part in violently assaulting them on Jan. 6.

· He said the economy was strong but didn’t address how inflation is raging while the stock market is falling.

· Remember the honorary Secret Service recipient? He was a young boy with cancer, yet Trump didn’t dare mention he was cutting cancer research.

· He referred to Bobby Kennedy and MAHA – Make America Healthy Again – but didn’t point out that there are more cases of measles in Texas than there are transgender athletes in the entire country (as so eloquently pointed out by CNN’s Van Jones).

Of course, no Trump engagement would be complete without a word or two about the assassination attempt on his life in Butler, Pa., last year. That would be the same assassination attempt that he vowed to only mention once because it was too painful to talk about. Since that vow, he has recreated that moment in front of an audience too many times to possibly count.

One thing that I wish had turned out differently was this: When Al Green exited the House chamber, his fellow Democrats should have followed right after him. The message they would have sent would have been perfectly clear: Donald Trump doesn’t represent all of us. He caters only to the wealthy and his adoring sycophants.

Trump is just in it for one person. That person, of course, is himself.